EMPATHETIC: Goes beyond logic… makes Customers ‘feel’ the why to buy

EMPATHETIC: Goes beyond logic… makes Customers ‘feel’ the why to buy

Silver Argosy, the small beach resort, 20 kms from a large coastal town is emerging from 3 months of Covid hibernation. Pradeep, Head of Sales and Guest Relations and his team have been named as “Business Stars” of the quarter when the resort opened. Asked what got them the award, Pradeep shared this story:

“When the lockdown began, me and my team realized this was going to be a big opportunity, if only we knew how to encash it. Our regular guests we knew would grow weary of the lockdown. You can’t expect a foodie and traveler to stay cooped up in their homes for long. We had to give them reasons to unlock with us, rather than in any other way.

On the work front we were suddenly having nothing at all to do as the resort was shut. The Facility Management team started upgrading to the latest in hygiene and sanitation, including CCTV Cameras in strategic areas like the kitchen and laundry. The Front Desk was busy upgrading to remote check in software and UV scanned access cards. The F&B revised their entire menu to include a variety of immune-boosters. This was going to be a whole NEW resort when we reopen!

We in the Sales Team couldn’t sit idle at home. We did a two hour virtual brainstorm. In the first hour, we all spoke like Customers, articulating our fears, and anxieties about an overnight stay at our resort. In the next hour, we came up with 7 big ideas, that would assuage those fears, and help us sell the ‘new’ and safe resort virtually to our regular clients to begin with. Here is what we did:

1. We made a list of our Top 100 regular guests in this time of the year.. This was the easiest to do. The next wasn’t as easy. That’s where we struck gold.
2. We reached out to our F&B, Housekeeping teams that had electronic records of what was ordered and by whom, and we also scanned all the guest feedback records. It was quite a discovery trip. After a week of search we had specific details of what our Top 100 Customers took back as pleasant memories from here.
3. One day, I just pulled out my mobile phone and recorded video clips of our Chefs, Housekeeping and Front Desk Staff narrating how they are preparing for a post Covid world. I shared those videos on WhatsApp with some of my close Customers, and they responded positively in real time! That encouraged me, to change gears.
4. As the unlock began, we as a team, started inviting Customers to a virtual round up of our facility. They loved it. The surprise element was when I got the Chef to recall the food they had enjoyed, that was a clincher. The Laundry and Housekeeping folks chipped in with their own snippets.
5. To those in doubt, I got our IT and Security Teams to offer a 10 minute peek through our CCTV System.. At a timing of their convenience.. And that laid to rest any doubts they had.
6. As a gesture, I got our CFO to sign-off on free pick-ups and drops from the City, and in selective cases a deferred payment plan, for which I said I will bet my incentive as guarantee. He knew my past collection record, and readily agreed!
7. For the proof of the pudding, we plan to record Customer feedback during checkout and two weeks later. The Customers will get promotional coupons as an expression of our thanks for their endorsement. We will use those videos on our website. We’re sure that will help us sell even more.

The rest as you saw, is history. Am happy my team and I could monetize our signature customer delight experiences, in ways that helped both our Customers unwind, in these stressful times. We only had to strike that empathetic chord.. With our Customers, and with our own internal stakeholders.. And it worked! We created the conditions for Customers to buy, and when the time came, they didn’t let us down!

Highly successful salespeople can quickly slip under the Customer’s skin and understand Customer needs, challenges and anxieties even before the Customer can articulate them. This helps them proactively propose solutions that surprise and delight Customers.

In our story Pradeep and his team demonstrated a high degree of empathy in understanding what priorities of the guests and internal stakeholders must be addressed to make them conquer fears of making a holiday happen in a post pandemic season. Empathy helped them discover need for a getaway that many Customers had but couldn’t consciously identify. Empathy also inspired them to find ways of meeting those needs through creation of a safe and memorable hospitality experience.

That’s just one half of the story. The other half has to do with how sales teams will monetize such experience for growing the business. The cherry comes on the cake when Sales Stars leverage empathy to rise above mundane selling to really make every Customer eager and happy to buy.